Getting Started
Most cameras, including newer point and shoot cameras will let you shoot in full manual mode. The problem with going manual is that if you don’t have your settings “just right” you can end up with an image that is too dark or too light. Without a basic understanding of the different settings, it can be difficult to get a good shot. However, with a basic understanding of the three variables even the most newbie photographer can learn to take better pictures by getting away from the automatic settings.

ISO Speed
The ISO speed is equivalent to the ISO speed we used to use on film cameras, this describes the light sensitivity of the film that is being used. The higher the ISO speed, the more light the sensor can pick up. For example, if your camera is set to ISO 800 you can take a well exposed image in a darker room than you could with ISO 100. By definition you would always want to run your camera in the highest ISO speed possible. While this may sound like a good idea, the downside is that the higher the ISO speed, the more “noise” will be introduced to the image, thus degrading the image quality. In most cases, you will get excellent results by using ISO 200-400 outdoors and 400-800 indoors. This does not take into account your camera model as some cameras do better than others at the higher ISO settings.

Shutter Speed

Medium Shutter Speed to Show Movement

The shutter speed is one of the easiest settings to understand as it simply means how fast the shutter opens and closes when you press the shutter button. The faster the shutter speed the better the camera will freeze the action of an event. This setting is represented in seconds, a fast shutter speed would be something like 1/2000^th of a second. A long shutter speed such as 1/30^th of a second or slower can result in blurry images if you don’t use a tripod. Like the other settings, the shutter speed also affects the amount of light that hits the sensor. The faster the shutter speed, the less light that comes into the camera. So while a fast shutter speed can freeze action, you need more and more light in order to prevent getting a dark picture the faster you set the shutter. When you cant get a bright enough image, you will need to slow down the shutter speed. In some cases you may want to get a motion blur such as a waterfall or freeway traffic, these shots require a very long shutter speed.

Shallow Depth of Field

Aperture
Understanding aperture is probably the most difficult setting for most people to grasp, because of this we wrote an entire article about it. The aperture is an adjustable opening in the lens that controls the amount of light that can enter the camera. The aperture setting is expressed in f stops with the largest opening having a smaller number so a wide open aperture is going to have an f-stop of around f/1.4. The aperture setting can have a big effect on the depth of field which allows one part of the image to be in focus and the rest of it being blurry which helps to highlight the subject of the photograph.

Starting Points
Without having a light meter or lots of experience how do you know what settings to start with? The way I learned was to set my ISO to what I wanted, typically 200-400 ISO outdoors and 400-800 ISO indoors, and put the camera in P mode and press the shutter half way down. Inside the viewfinder the camera will show the settings it will use to take the picture. Then you can put the camera into Manual mode and adjust the settings to match. After some practice you should be able to set some basic settings fairly close to what they need to be, then, by pressing the shutter half way down the camera will autofocus and then take a meter reading which should show in the viewfinder or on a display depending on your camera. Then you can adjust shutter speed or aperture to change the exposure to get it where you need.

Using the Histogram
If your camera will display a histogram after shooting an image, then you need to take advantage of this feature. By looking at the histogram of an image you can quickly tell if the image was properly exposed or not. With a digital SLR camera you want the histogram to be a nice curve with the curve being just to the right of center like our example one here. This is actually saying that the image is just slightly overexposed. With film, if you overexposed the image, you would lose detail so it was better to slightly underexpose. With digital, shadows will lose detail so it is better to slightly overexpose.

Practice Practice Practice
There is nothing that will beat getting out and getting behind the camera and learning how to use it well. If you plan on making photography a serious hobby or more, you will need to learn how to use manual mode for those times when the automatic or program mode settings just won’t cut it or for when you want to create an effect that you just can’t get any other way.

Get out and practice and be sure to post some comments and post some pictures to our Flickr group.

Canon’s new EOS Rebel T1i is packed with features, both refined and new. In addition to its admirable performance with an all-new 15.1 Megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 Image Processor, a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD with anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coating, and compatibility with the EOS System of lenses and Speedlites, the EOS Rebel T1i adds remarkable Full HD video capture at resolutions up to 1920 x 1080. An HDMI port allows for quick connections to high definition TVs and monitors for easy viewing of your stills and video. The entire operation is simple and easy even if you are a beginner. You’ll have uncompromised EOS Digital performance with power and flexibility right in the palm of your hand.

• New 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with DIGIC 4 Image Processor for faster processing of fine detail and natural color reproduction, 14-bit A/D conversion for smooth color tones and gradations.
• Full HD video capture at 1920 x 1080 resolution with HDMI output for HD viewing of stills and video.
• Live View Function for stills (Quick, Live and Face Detection AF modes) and video.
• 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) monitor with anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coatings for improved viewing and smudge protection.
• Auto Lighting Optimizer for superior highlight-shadow control.
• Wide range ISO setting 100-3200 (ISO expansion: 6400, 12800).
• Creative Auto goes a step beyond auto allowing control over frequently-changed settings.
• Compatible with over 60 Canon EF/EF-S lenses and most EOS System accessories.

Suggested Retail Price: $899.99

Website: http://www.usa.canon.com

Top Ten Contest Entries

Nashville Train Station (link)
The Link (link)
Millenium Bridge (link)
Nicholson Viaduct (link)
The Road Goes on Forever (link)
Gothic Walkway (link)
Quase Infinito (link)
Golden Beach Dock (link)
DC Metro (link)
Her first day on the job (link)

And the winner is……

LShadrack's The Link

LShadrack’s entry, The Link is our contest winner. This killer shot of a bridge in Kansas City played well with the theme of the contest, nailed the symetry of structure, was exposed well, and made for an excellent image. Congrats!

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Want to make your shooting easier so you do less cropping in post production? CropLines has the answer with engraved focus screens for 8×10, Rue of thirds, school portrait, or other designs so that you can nail your image in-camera.

Many photographers use or are considering flash brackets so that you can keep your accessory flash above your camera regardless of whether or not you have your camera in its vertical or horizontal position. The Reporter Flash Ring is one of the simplest flash brackets I have ever seen Instead of a series of hinges and brackets, the Reporter Flash Ring has a rong around the lens that doesn’t move and the flash slides around on the ring on a set of rollers. The design is simple and effective.

While not everyone wants their own photobooth, if you are looking to make you own, check out the new photobooth software from TOFURIOS. Their photobooth software is the best I have seen so far.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Does scaling images have to suck?

The problem with scaling images up is that the software has to examine the image and guess what pixels need to be added to make the image look right and maintain quality, detail, and sharpness. Without a very sophisticated algorithm, you end up with blocky and blurry images when you are done. This is exactly what Genuine Fractals was designed to solve.

Photoshop CS4 vs Genuine Fractals 6

While Photoshop does an ok job at upsizing images, it most certainly does not do a terrific job. Let’s take a look at what Photoshop can do versus what Genuine Fractals can do on a small photo.  The original photo we are going to use is this photo that originally was at 640px wide. Let’s pit Photoshop CS4 vs. Genuine Fractals 6.

The following examples show the difference between the two programs:

Scaled with Photoshop

Scaled with Genuine Fractals

As you can see, the image scaled with Photoshop is much softer, looking out of focus than the one scaled with Genuine Fractals. This is a rather extreme example since we started with a pretty small image to scale up but it does prove the point. My normal use is for scaling screenshots up from 72dpi to 150dpi for use in the books I am writing and it does an awesome job of that.

Using Genuine Fractals

Genuine Fractals is a Photoshop plugin and when activated opens in its own interface with the toolbar on the right Besides just scaling images up or down, it can also add texturing and film grain which can help improve the perception of sharpness.

Another useful feature is a tool to create the data needed for gallery wrap images where the image continues off the edge of the frame and continues along the outside edge.

Key Features of Genuine Fractals 6

Genuine Fractals may seem like a pretty basic program but it does have an impressive list of features as well.

• Resize images up to 1000%
• Maintain sharp edges and minute detail
• Control texture for maximum quality with different image types
• Apply sharpening based on luminosity only
• Add simulated film grain for perceptual sharpening
• Includes document size presets for common photo and paper sizes
• Supports cropping and resizing in one step
• Supports resizing RGB images
• Supports resizing grayscale images
• Supports LAB images
• Supports layered Photoshop files
• Tiling feature – create tiled mosaics
• Batch process multiple files at once
• Supports resizing CMYK images  **
• Gallery Wrap feature – add extended margins for printing on canvas **
• Integrates with Photoshop Lightroom **
• Integrates with Apple Aperture **

** Only availale in the Professional Edition

System Requirements

Windows
Windows XP SP2 or Vista
Microsoft .Net 2.0 Framework or higher

Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later
Universal Binary – Supports Intel Processors

Common
Photoshop CS2(v9.0.2), CS3, or CS4
Photoshop Elements 4 or later
512MB of RAM
25 MB of disk space
Adobe Flash Player 9
Internet connection for update checking & tutorial movies

Genuine Fractals Demo

In this video, Kerry shows how to use Genuine Fractals to scale up images.

One of the things mentioned was to use checklists, if you missed that article from the past, here is a link to it.

Paying Attention To Detail from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

For a special treat, check out the outtakes.

Please leave comments here and let us know if you would like to see more of these video segments and if you like them like this or would like to also see them in iTunes. Thanks.